MoneyMe teams with USYD to grant $96k Fintech Partner Scholarship
Leading consumer fintech, MoneyMe, has teamed with the University of Sydney Business School to award a $96,000 Fintech Industry Partner Scholarship to Sydney University Business Analytics PhD doctoral student, Jian Tina Zhai.
The partnership reflects MoneyMe’s commitment to the long term future of the rapidly expanding fintech sector and the Business School’s commitment to strong industry links as well as cutting edge research.
The scholarship will waive Tina’s fees throughout the 3 years of her candidature at the School, while also providing her with firsthand work experience at MoneyMe assisting in the development of their state-of-the-art, purpose-built consumer lending platform, ‘Horizon’.
“My ultimate aim is to apply my academic research to a wide range of industry endeavors. The opportunity to work with MoneyMe will allow me to hit the ground running and get started on this goal even before completing my studies,“ said Jian Tina Zhai.
“It will also allow me to apply my data science skills and experience at the forefront of technological advances in areas such as credit score modelling, data mining and artificial intelligence in the MoneyMe systems. From an academic standpoint, I plan to publish a white paper with MoneyMe by the end of this industry partner program,” concluded Jian Tina Zhai.
Before enrolling at the University of Sydney, Tina completed a Masters degree in Financial Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology and a Bachelor degree at East China University in Political Science and Law. She also worked in global organizations in the US, China, and Philippines including at the Asian Development Bank.
“MoneyMe is in full support of any initiatives that encourage the next generation of fintech entrepreneurs to reach their full potential in Australia as rapidly as possible,” said Clayton Howes, Co-Founder and CEO of MoneyMe.
“There is great potential in this younger generation that fintechs like us can unlock if we are able to capture their value by providing opportunities such as this one. In doing so, members of this generation can also gain valuable work experience that will give them a huge advantage against their peers, whether they decide to work for a fintech – or build one themselves,” concluded Clayton Howes.
Tina is supervised by Dr. Henry Leung, Dr. Quan Gan and Dr. Artem Prokhorov in her PhD, which has a strong focus on machine learning in credit risk modelling.
Horizon is MoneyMe’s 100%-owned, rules-based lending and database management tech platform that gives MoneyMe the ability to credit assess and evaluate millions of lending transactions daily. It applies risk algorithms that quickly and accurately determine the risk levels of individual applicants, ensuring lending decisions on customers are made responsibly.
